A West Wing character taught me how to stay on top of the housework. But did this fictional political consultant also teach me how to be unhappy? “It may not be realistic, but it feels real, and it feels right. If this isn’t what the White House is like, it’s what it should be like.” […]
This sailboat metaphor made me tidy, but unhappy Read More »
I rarely sleep well, but some nights are more gruelling than others. This is a record of an especially restless night: messages from the frontier of sleeplessness… It’s like this some nights: the land of sleep is a nightclub with an implacable door policy. That’s one way I visualise my insomnia: I’m queuing alone outside
Insomnia Land: Eight Restless Dispatches from the Lonely Frontier Read More »
All you need to get in great shape is a pedometer, an unforgiving inner monologue, and the wisdom of Spinal Tap. It worked for me! Obsessing over step counting is an idiotic waste of time. Sorry, I was just talking to myself. But you might as well hear it too, dear reader. At best, Fitbits
The Shadow Scorecard of the Fitbit Fanatic Read More »
I hate birthdays, especially ones that involve chasing homicidal animals at the beach… It’s my birthday and I’m at the beach. This is surprising, because I really don’t like going to the beach. What’s even more unusual is the size of the crowd that has turned out to celebrate with me. My dad, my wife
Dream: The Fox and the Hand Saw Read More »
My garden had become an embarrassment. But nature still offered up a perfect summer moment, filling the sky with clouds of dancing seeds… It was a late July day and it was blissful, even for a shade-grown hayfever sufferer like me. Patches of mellow sunlight ebbed across our neglected garden in a lazy-river procession and
The Infinite Dandelion Probability Generator Read More »
Ignorance is bliss. So is caffeine. Here’s how my morning coffee was ruined by science… There are some facts that, once learned, you wish you could immediately scrub from your memory. A couple of years ago, I read that it’s best to abstain from coffee in the first hour after waking, because caffeine interferes with
What is there to look forward to, except coffee? Read More »
My tinnitus was driving me crazy, so I headed to the beach. But instead of a paradise of white noise, I encountered a celestial silence that was deafening… I stood at the threshold of the divine and immediately wanted to go home. For most people, what I experienced would represent a moment of serenity, a
Slack water at the gates of heaven Read More »
During a season of stifling heat and animal mortality, I tried in vain to teach my daughter about the Circle of Life… A friend of mine once asked why it was rare to see a dead animal on the streets of London, given the teeming population of creatures with whom we share the city. The
Apex Predators in High Summer Read More »
How a short lifestyle column, about the pleasures of completing early-morning errands, got lodged in my brain for two decades… If actions speak louder than words, then the actions that we take routinely and automatically can seem to speak loudest of all. People’s lives are defined by routines. When they try to change their habits
Carrot and Stick and Caffeine Read More »
We all want clear lines of succession and shared rules for the peaceful transfer of power. But focusing on protocol can make us lose sight of the job at hand… Joe Biden’s inauguration as President of the United States took place under extraordinary circumstances. One of many idiosyncrasies that day: he took the oath of
Just who is in charge here? Read More »
